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Smoked Sausage & Sauerkraut Soup

fun fact: sauerkraut is fermented cabbage and will last for eternity so a good choice if you’re stocking up for the apocalypse

If you have someone at home fighting a cold, on the verge of a cold/flu or just very very susceptible to the cold/flu, make them this soup. Now.*

It’s almost impossible to overstate how nutritious this thing is. Seriously.

Probiotic, vitamin-C rich sauerkraut meets the immune system boosters of onion, garlic and (hopefully homemade) chicken broth and there’s a little protein to keep you full for hours after.

hello protein!

The recipe calls for your sauerkraut to be ‘rinsed and drained’ but bear in mind that you don’t have to be too conscientous about the draining – if there’s a little liquid remaining it’s not such a bad thing. It gives the final product a nice, tangy kick.

ladling it out…the cook always gets the largest portions – right?!

The success of this soup depends, in large part, on the quality of your broth. I’m a terrible broth snob and highly recommend that you make your own.

If not, please consider investing in organic stuff – there’s a lot of additives/MSG thrown into the regular kind.

*assuming, of course, that you’re not at work, in a meeting or reading this on your portable iThing on public transport.

28 thoughts on “Smoked Sausage & Sauerkraut Soup”

Sounds absolutely delicious! This past summer I purchased a The Harsch/Gartopf fermenting crock to pickle some cucumbers and other things, i.e. cabbage. Homemade sauerkraut is on the agenda for this Fall/Winter as is kimchi. 🙂 I will need to try this when I get some kraut made.

Hi Harold. My big jar of sauerkraut is swimming in vinegar so I rinsed and drained because I didn’t really want the vinegar to overpower everything else in the soup. Of course, if you like yours on the tangy side then feel free to just dump it in there – it’s a matter of personal taste. Hope you enjoy!

I figured that was the reason, but since i make my own, its just salt and a kraut pounder…makes its own brine, which has a tang to it but ‘swimming’-ly. I figured that was where all the probiotics were. To each their own, I suppose.
Thanks for the reply.

A. I’m so stockpiling for an apocalypse! One that involves zombies of course. Sure would be good to know if kraut will repell zombires.
B. In the more present sense, I do have a bit of a cold right now and this sounds like such a good idea.
C. Or is it a cold or phase one of turning into a zombie?? I’ll keep you posted 😉

A. I am preparing for an apocalypse! Zombie style of course, so do you think kraut will repell zombies?
B. I have a bit of a cold so this would be great right now!
C. Unless it isn’t a cold but the onset of a Zombie viruse….I’ll keep you posted 😉

Ha! I think sauerkraut will repel vampires (due to the garlic) but not really zombies. It will, however, give you the energy to run away…very, very fast.
If you have a zombie virus then I’d advise you to feed your friends this soup – so they can survive your horrific mutation and not be your first meal 🙂 Good luck!

I saw this recipe on a paleo app I downloaded. First off, love your name it so cute. Second I am new to cooking with meat and not sure what kind of sausage to get. Do I get the cooked kind you would as a hotdog or the raw kind? Also noticed big ones and little, does it matter? Thanks. I probably should take a basic cooking class!

Hi Lori. Don’t worry – these are the kinds of questions I’m here to answer and everyone has to start somewhere 🙂 I used large ready-cooked pork sausages. You could use the raw kind as the soup boils for long enough to cook them, but it was just handier for me to use some yummy ready made organic ones. When you’re boiling the meat in a lot of liquid, as with soup, it isn’t as important because cooked won’t dry out and raw will have plenty of time to cook through. Same thing goes for the size of the sausage. The best thing when learning to cook is to try everything. There’s no substitute for experience. Hope you enjoy 🙂

This has become my go to cold season soup! Love the zing of it. There is a pot on the stove now with a few minor adaptations. I had smoked kielbasa in the freezer instead of the sausage and yukon golds subbed for the parsnips we didn’t have, love it!